During repair, maintenance and other body work on a vehicle it is often desirable to remove the vehicle doors from their hinge assemblies. This task has always been problematic in the past in that vehicle doors and the hinges used are not easily removable and replaceable, even with two or more people to assist one another. In the past, this operation has generally required two men in order to remove and replace these doors Even with two workmen the removal and replacement operation was problematic because of man hours utilized in actual alignment and realignment of the doors to make them operable again and also was inefficient since the workers will tend to socialize prior to, during and after completion of the job.
In the past vehicle doors were only removed when absolutely necessary. Because of this, maintenance on vehicle doors, such as removal and replacement of bushings, goes unchecked for the life of the automobile causing loose hinge fittings, rattling and the like. While these bushings could and should be replaced, owners are not likely to do the replacement because the cost is excessive. Also, body shops are adverse to performing the job because of the work hours and general hassle involved.
Therefore, there has been a need in the art to provide a mechanism which would assist a body shop worker in removing and realigning the doors to reduce the problematic nature of the operation.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle door removal apparatus which allows one man removal and realignment of a vehicle door in a simple operation.